OSHEAGA 2018 REVIEW: YOUTH UNITED

Mother Nature was smiling down on Osheaga this year, with the exception of a slightly rainy couple of hours, the sun was shining all the way through, and what a weekend it was! Thousands upon thousands of people from all areas flocked to Parc Jean Drapeau to come together for one common goal: to share their love of music. And with complete confidence, I can say, the festival delivered.

Osheaga has always been great for bringing some extremely high profile acts to Montreal. In my personal opinion, being outdoors was definitely one of the best ways to view and hear the artists. I have seen a number of these artists perform at indoor venues, and they do not compare to their Osheaga performances. It is always such a privilege to be able to see these artists all perform in one place.

This year, my highlights of the festival were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Odesza, Travis Scott, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Tyler The Creator, De La Soul, Franz Ferdinand, Post Malone, The National and Florence + The Machine. Simply being able to see one of these artists perform would be worth the price of admission for me, as they all did an excellent job, however the fact I got to see them all on one weekend was simply mind blowing.

My biggest issue with the festival this year however was that there was far too much overlap between the artists that presented this year. Though Osheaga is constantly growing and will only continue to grow, I feel if the overlapping continues to happen, it will risk alienating a number of their patrons.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

As far as organization goes, the organizers did an incredible job with ensuring that the festival ran smoothly. If there were any complications, they were soon rectified. The biggest issue was that Travis Scott was held up at the border, something outside of the festival’s control. However the organizers were able to communicate his status to the general public. Unfortunately, his set time was drastically cut due to curfew, but Travis still delivered a great performance and the show could go on.
This was the first year evenko introduced the YUL Eat Garden, in which healthier and more gourmet food options are available. These are more accommodating to people’s dietary restrictions, and I feel there is room for even more options, in the years to come.
This marks the 2nd year the festival was on the temporary location and I can’t help but prefer the layout and feel I will miss it once renovations are done on the original location.
Overall I feel Osheaga 2018 was a massive success and I very much look forward to seeing what 2019 has in store.